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Found out the first passenger elevator was installed in 1857
I was reading an old trade magazine at a shop and saw that the first one was in a New York department store. It only went five stories at 40 feet per minute. Anyone know what the first safety device on those things actually was?
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casey6823d ago
Actually, the Haughwout building is the one I was talking about... it sold glass and china but also fancy goods. The safety brake story is a bit mixed up though. Otis showed his brake in 1854, but that first passenger elevator in 1857 didn't even use his design. It used a different system by another guy. The Otis safety brake didn't become standard until later.
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wells.olivia4d ago
Actually, that first passenger elevator was in 1857 at the E.V. Haughwout Building in New York, not a department store. It was more of a fancy goods store. The real safety game-changer came a few years later with Elisha Otis's elevator brake. He famously demonstrated it at the 1854 World's Fair by having the rope cut while he was standing on the platform. A spring-loaded mechanism would engage and lock the elevator to the guide rails if the hoisting rope failed. That's what made people actually trust them.
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